Cafe owner charged with courthouse bomb threats

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A Cobb County businessman who operates a restaurant on the Marietta Square in suburban Atlanta has been arrested for charges linked to bomb threats at courthouses Tuesday.

The Marietta Daily Journal reports (http://bit.ly/10rnDzk ) that authorities say 45-year-old Jody John Wilson, of Woodstock, called in bomb threats that led to workers being evacuated from the Cobb and Cherokee county courthouses. Wilson has owned and operated the Starlight Cafe on the Marietta Square with his wife for the past two years.

Police have not disclosed an official motive, but say Wilson's home in Woodstock — about 30 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta — was in foreclosure and was scheduled to be sold on the courthouse steps the day the bomb threats were called in.

The bomb threat was called in from a pay phone at a gas station less than a mile from the restaurant, Cobb County Sheriff's Col. Milton Beck told the Marietta Daily Journal. Surveillance footage showed Wilson in the area of the gas station around the time the call was placed.

Authorities are probing any possible connections between Wilson and previous threats that were also called into the courthouse. Officials said those threats also fell on days when foreclosed homes were scheduled to be sold.

Wilson faces charges that include making terroristic threats and giving false statements.